The track that set things in motion was "Don't Tell All Our Friends About Me" by California-based singer-songwriter Blake Mills.

"It punched me right in the gut," Broussard said during a recent visit to CBS News. "For years, I avoided writing about the darker side of love and my relationship with my wife for fear of offending my wife's sensibilities. She can get a little hurt if I write a lyric that's a little too biting. And after I heard that song, I decided that I couldn't neglect that side of my writing anymore."

The Louisiana native also turned to two other personal situations (also dark) for more inspiration: the death of his grandmother in 2012 and the passing of his good friend, "Squirrel," who was the head of the English department at a Jesuit high school in New Orleans.

Marc Broussard, "A Life Worth Living," 2014.

Vanguard Records

The outcome is "A Life Worth Living," Broussard's sixth studio album and his most personal to date.

"I had to connect with the lyric in a way that I hadn't -- that I had suppressed for so long. It was really exciting to get to go there. So I went there and I dove right in," Broussard, 32, said.

"There are single lines in this record that have decades of significance in my life," he added. "But those are my stories. The goal is to have people hear this record and form their own stories."

Broussard recently performed lead single "Hurricane Heart" at the Miss USA competition and will be on the road all summer. His fall headlining tour gets under way in September and stretches into November.

And then?

"I'm going to take the wife and kids to Disney World for Christmas," he said. "It's going to be a good year."